Low-budget indie 'Clutter' attracts well-known actors

Updated 2:27 pm, Thursday, August 14, 2014

New Milford screenwriter/producer landed a dream cast including Carol Kane for his latest independent film, "Clutter."

New Milford screenwriter/producer landed a dream cast including Carol Kane for his latest independent film, "Clutter."

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Low-budget indie 'Clutter' attracts well-known actors

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The hoarding syndrome that has been treated glibly and to elicit mocking laughter on cable TV gets serious treatment in "Clutter," the latest independent project to spring from the imagination of New Milford filmmaker Paul Marcarelli.

Shot in 18 days on Long Island, N.Y., the comedy-drama is about an elderly hoarder played by Carol Kane, who has gotten so out of control that her suburban house is condemned. While most of the story takes place in the squalid home, the real subject of the movie is the family dysfunction that left the woman surrounded by smothering piles of stuff she accumulated after her husband's sudden death.

Marcarelli said that while he has no personal experience with hoarding, the movie was partially inspired by seeing his grandmother's property dispersed after she died three years ago.

"It was a unique and singular gift to be with her when she passed from one world to the next ... but when it came time to start dividing her stuff and my parents and my aunt went to a thrift store, it was a very difficult experience watching someone else assign value to these items. I could see that my parents had a tremendous attachment to these things that were left behind," Marcarelli said during a recent phone interview.

"I think my experience informs the relationship Linda has with her items," the filmmaker added of the Kane character's attachment to a houseful of sentimental reminders of a better time for her family.

The lives of Linda's three grown children become a major part of the narrative. Lisa (Natasha Lyonne) lives with her mother, but is simmering with unfocused rage. Penny (Halley Feiffer) finds work styling houses for sale, but suffers from painful shyness that makes it almost impossible for her to function. The son, Charlie (Joshua Leonard), is a filmmaker afraid to take a job in Los Angeles because he is the only one who keeps any semblance of order in the family.

"Clutter" is a follow-up film to Marcarelli's acclaimed 2011 indie film, "The Green," which also attracted major acting talent, including Julia Ormond and Cheyenne Jackson.

"We worked closely with the same people who cast `The Green,' " the producer and screenwriter said of the search for actors that he and director Diane Crespo embarked on.

Marcarelli feels very lucky to have landed actors who were on his dream list from the beginning, including Kane and Lyonne.

"I wrote a (small) part for Kathy Najimy. She was on the Chelsea Handler show (in Los Angeles), flew on the red eye (to New York), worked a 14-hour day for us and was heaven the entire time," he said. "So inventive and funny. Diane asked her to do five or six exits (from her scene) and each one was funnier than the last."

Kane anchors the film with a powerhouse performance that has drawn rave reviews.

Marcarelli is frustrated by the way that Hollywood often relegates mature performers to supporting roles or projects that present older people as one-note comic figures.

"They're more seasoned human beings," the writer said of the appeal of veteran actors. "They are able to show a deeper understanding of the pitfalls of human experience. ... It was so important to me that the mother was fully fleshed out."

Like many independent films, "Clutter" received very limited theatrical distribution before debuting on cable video on demand services three months ago. More recently, it also became available via Amazon, iTunes and other download services.

"There is room for everyone (in moviemaking) -- the huge, big-budget studio films and what we do," he said, adding that he realizes Kane is financially able to do a movie like "Clutter" because she also gets steady work in major Hollywood films. (Kane will be seen as the Penguin's mother in the next "Batman" movie.)

"But there is a very different energy on a set when everyone has committed to the story we are telling and not the perks of a big budget," he said.